Early Stimulation Exercises for Babies 0-12 Months

Early stimulation includes a series of exercises and activities that promote the baby's psychomotor development, as well as his cognitive development. In this article we will see different early stimulation exercises for babies up to 12 months.

In each month of life, the exercises must be adapted to the capacities and abilities of the little one. We are going to learn about some of these exercises, organized by stages and months.

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Early stimulation

Early stimulation (also called early attention) is based on a series of exercises through which babies and children can have fun and through which their cognitive and psychomotor development is enhanced. These exercises also facilitate future learning.

Early stimulation can be started from birth and up to 6-7 years approximately, since it is in this period that the structure of thought and child's personality.

This kind of stimulation will allow to take advantage of the mental and physical capacities of the baby to the maximum

; For this reason, the work as a mother, father or professional will be decisive, through appropriate activities with specific objectives that facilitate the optimal development of it.

Early Stimulation Exercises for Babies

When a baby is born, one of her basic needs is physical contact, in addition to eating, drinking, sleeping, defecating and urinating.

The babies receive the first stimuli from their reference figures (mainly from mother and father). It is important that since they are born, their senses are stimulated through play, speech and different exercises that we can do with them.

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Early stimulation in the first 6 months

In the early stages (0 to 6 months), early stimulation exercises for babies will help them to gain flexibility, strengthen their muscle tone and prepare to explore the environment.

It is recommended that the exercises be carried out at a time of day when the baby is receptive and calm, and that their sleep and feeding hours are respected. You can start with five-minute sessions and gradually increase the time, although they should not last more than 10 minutes.

Exercises from 0 to 3 months

There are different types of early stimulation exercises for babies. We are going to talk now about those that can be done during the first trimester of life (from 0 to 3 months). These exercises should be gentle, and will be focused on help them gain mobility, discover new sensations and to become familiar with their first stimuli. Some of them are:

• Take her hands and feet and play with her fingers, one by one.
• Perform hand and foot massages.
• Lying on your back, grab the soles of his feet and bring his knees to his chest. Repeat 5 times with each leg and gradually increase the frequency.
• Lying on his back, he takes his hands and makes circular movements with his arms.
• Lying on his back, show him a colored toy at a distance of 30 cm from his eyes and move it from one side to the other so that he follows it with his head.
• Lying on your back, bring the baby's right hand towards the opposite shoulder very gently. Repeat with your left hand. Then cross both arms over your chest.

Exercises from 3 to 6 months

The exercises will change as the baby grows., since he will be acquiring motor skills. Thus, we will progressively add more complex exercises.

You can start with exercises upside down to gain strength in the muscles of the neck; We will do them little by little and respecting your willingness to carry them out. Some of these exercises can be the following:

• Lying on your back, gently move the bike with your legs.
• Take their hands and play clapping.
• Lying on his back, bend one leg while extending the other and help him turn to the side of the extended leg. Do it again with the other leg.
• Lying on his back, grab him by the arms and slowly bring him up to a sitting position.
• Lying baby on his stomach, place some toys in front of him so that he tries to reach them.

Exercises from 7 to 10 months

As the baby grows, the objectives and exercises will be adapted to it. Thus, early stimulation exercises for babies They must always adapt to the physical and psychomotor characteristics of the child.. Some exercises that can be done between 7 and 10 months are:

• Draw different pictures of animals, make the corresponding sound for each one, and tell him to name it as you taught him. For example, when you point the cat, go "meow, meow."
• Let the child touch the food with his hands. Make him put one of the foods he touches in his mouth, so that he correlates the texture with the taste.
• Get crawling around the house with him, he will help you a lot, perform this activity crawling forward, backward, turning, and encouraging him to follow you.
• Put several objects in a row and say: “give me the car”; Guide his hand to the toy and once he has taken it, gently remove the object and praise him for giving it to you.
• Teach him to call a relative, for example, “call your aunt”, when this happens, applaud him, and keep doing it, until he calls and looks for his aunt.

Exercises from 11 to 12 months

From 11 months to the year, some of the early stimulation exercises recommended for this stage are this stage:

• Place your hands on a radio or speaker that is turned on to hear the vibrations of the music.
• Teach your child to smooth the sand into a bucket by flattening it and patting it.
• Having fun in the mirror will teach you to distinguish the image from the reality. Make him look in the mirror, soon he will start laughing and touching the portrait of him.
• Stimulate activities with the same toy, saying: "Hug the baby", "Rock the baby", "feed the baby."
• Give him the opportunity to join you when you do the cleaning, for example, you can give him a cloth to help you in any other activity that you think he is capable of.

Bibliographic references:

• Rovati, L. (2017). Early stimulation exercises for your baby from 0 to 6 months. Babies and more.
• Britton, W., Guerrero, S., Huanqui, M. and Malque, E. (2009). EARLY STIMULATION GUIDE FOR THE FACILITATOR. Adara Peru